tion, by narrowing the commercial circle, but inflicts permanent injury on the workmen of both countries, by lessening the demand for employment. The alterations of employment from change of fashion, are of such constant occurrence, that it is hardly necessary to particularize them by examples. About seventy years ago it was the fashion of all ranks to wear wigs; in 1765 many persons began to wear their own hair, which occasioned great distress among the peruke-makers, for want of employment; they petitioned the king for relief, upon which occasion many of them who attended, gave such offence by inconsistency in wearing their own hair, that they had it cut off by the crowd. The practice of wearing shoe-buckles and metal buttons, has almost entirely disappeared. In wearing-apparel one fabric has been substituted for another. cottons have taken place of woollens and linens, in many articles of dress; and cottons are in their turn in some measure being supplanted by silks. In various other branches of manufacture, similar alterations are almost continual. Thus The migration, or change of place of any manu facture, has sometimes arisen from improvements of machinery, not applicable to the spot where such manufacture was carried on; as appears to have been the case with the woollen manufacture, which has in great measure migrated from Essex, Suffolk, Kent, and other southern counties, to the northern districts, where coal for the use of the steam-engine is much cheaper. The silk manufacture appears also to be taking a northerly direction, and taking root at Manchester and Macclesfield. In some instances these transitions have been caused by the conduct of the workmen in refusing a reduction of wages, or opposing the introduction of some kind of improved machinery or process; so that, pending the dispute, another spot has in great measure supplied their place in the market. Any unreasonable combination for the purpose, or violence used against the property of their employers, is almost sure to be injurious to the workmen. Improvements in machinery have the effect of diminishing the demand for manual labour, by doing the same work at a cheaper rate than by hand. This diminution of employment is, however, generally of a temporary nature, as experience shows, that from the cheaper rates at which the product can be thus afforded, its use is more widely extended; and thus the workmen are again brought into work, though perhaps their employment may be different from what it was before. It is chiefly by successive improvements in machinery, great capital, and many facilities for the conveyance of goods, that our merchants are enabled to keep up a successful competition with foreigners in our staple manufactures. That the application of machinery has not lessened the aggregate amount of employment in society may be satisfactorily established by the progress of our manufacturing population. The number of persons employed in trade and manufactures, S in proportion to those employed in agriculture, is greater perhaps in this country than in any other European state. In Italy the proportion of agriculturists to non-agriculturists is as one hundred to thirty-one; in France, as one hundred to fifty; in England, as one hundred to two hundred. But the most remarkable fact as respects this country is the change that has taken place in the employment of the people since the commencement of the present century. In 1801 the number of persons engaged in trade and manufactures in England, as compared with those occupied in agricultural pursuits, was as six to five; in 1821 it had increased to eight to five; in 1830 to two to one.+ In Scotland the change has been still greater, having risen from five to six in 1801, to nine to five in 1821, and is now estimated at nearly two to one, as in England. During the whole period of thirty years, the general population of the country has increased nearly fiftyone per cent.; which exceeds the proportionate increase in the agricultural districts, but is less than the proportionate increase in the manufacturing districts. In four rural districts the increase of population, during the last thirty years, has been only thirty per cent.; in London fifty-eight per cent.; in ten large manufacturing towns eighty per cent.; and in three of the largest manufacturing towns no less than one hundred per cent., or exactly double. Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, p. 5. + Report on Manufacturers' Employment, Parl. Pap. 590. Sess. 1850, ** In 1774 the parish of Manchester is estimated to have contained 41,032 inhabitants-a number which was more than quadrupled in the subsequent fiftyseven years. The population of Preston is said, in 1780, not to have exceeded 6000, whereas it amounts at present to 33,112. In 1780 the city of Glasgow contained only 42,832 inhabitants; in 1831 it contained 202,426. The growth of Paisley, inclusive of the abbey parish, has been in a similar ratio during the last half-century. From these statements two important facts may be deduced; first, that within the last thirty years trade and manufactures, in place of agriculture, have become the predominating occupation of the people; secondly, that as the manufacturing popu. lation has increased much more rapidly than the agricultural, or even the general population of the country, it shows that the application of machinery to manufactures has not had the effect of lessening the aggregate amount of employment of the working classes. The latter fact will be made more evident by recapitulating the rapid progress of population in those towns where machinery has been most extensively introduced. The first three towns, as is well known, are the great emporiums of the cotton manufacture; Birmingham of hardware; Leeds of woollen and linen; Nottingham of stockings. McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce, p. 416. Manchester 94,876 22 115,874 40 161,635 47 237,832 100,749 46 147,043 38 202,426 36,722 28 47,003 22 57,466 Glasgow...77,385 30 53,162 18 Although it is clear, from this decennary statement of the progress of population, that the aggregate quantity of employment has increased with the increase of machinery, yet it would be sacrificing the truth, for the maintenance of a principle, to allege that a specific class of workmen on the first substitutition of a machine for their manual labour does not suffer by its introduction. The first effect of the substitution of machinery is to reduce the price of labour or cost of production of the commodity on which it is employed. Unless this end can be attained, the machinery will not be adopted. A new competitor is introduced in the form of wood and iron, which either forces the workman from his trade or compels him to accept a lower rate of wages. It is true consumption will be stimulated by the cheaper rate at which commodities can be produced, but this has its limits; for, however cheap cottons, woollens, and hosiery may be manufactured, the supply may ultimately exceed the demand even at the price of the raw material. Increased consumption may cause the labour of the |